VENUS 2012! It's phases, transit, whereabouts PART 1

Phases of Venus 2002 credit: Chris Proctor TBG5 Observatory

Venus, the second closest Planet to our Sun. The closest Planet to Earth, our twin sister and Morning Star as well as Evening Star. 

The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows.

This year Venus is the Planet to follow! You have the phases of Venus through out spring until 5-6 of June where it will transit the disc of our Sun. This evening star (at the moment) is coming into conjonction with Jupiter and in the twillight the bright "star" looks fabulous.

For you people who has a telescope, Venus is a easy target but still full of surprises and I would say Challenging! HERE is link providing an image of a selected solar system object, in this case Venus that approximates the telescopic view of the object as seen from the Earth at the specified date and time.
 On space.com you will find a schedule of how Venus' appearance will change during the coming months.
You have also a picture of a mosaic  of the phases of Venus to see what you are looking for, this is again for people with telescopes.

This time I wanted to emphasize on the phases of Venus and not the coming transit in June. We will have time to speak about the Transit of Venus happening on June 5-6 2012, don't worry!

For you people who does not have a telescope, find a astronomy club near you and go see it through there telescopes. Also wide views of the planet with the constellations at the back can give a very nice view.

So good luck with your observations and hope you have clear skies.

Click HERE to read the 2nd post of our journey through astronomy in Enontekiö, Lappland.

wikiinfo: Venus